Buy new laptop now, or wait until Vista is gone?

[DaveS]

Well, regardless of the operating system, you are in the "cheap" window right now.

August has historically been the cheapest time of the year to get a laptop (with the exception of the occasional super deal during Black Friday).

[catta12]

I have also been kicking around getting a new notebook for the wife. I think I will wait till the new OS comes pre-installed just so I don't have to do the OS swap dance.

[adauria]

I am in the exact same boat. The wife's birthday is mid-Sept, so I don't have much choice. I'll mostly likely get Vista (an OS I quite like, actually) with a free upgrade to Win 7 deal. I'll probably upgrade her a few weeks or months after it becomes available.

Even if you were "stuck" with Vista, on a properly sized machine and with SP1 it works just fine. 4 GB RAM is something I'd shoot for... at least 3 GB. I see a lot of laptops around $500 these days (give or take $100) with decent specs for wife-type activity, say 320 GB HD, built in webcam, 3-4 GB RAM, dual core Pentium procs, etc. That's the sweet spot I am shooting for.

-Andrew

[Garasaki]

No, not really, most of us have had no problem with Vista - one reason that it is such a popular OS.

That's an intriguing comment. Since when is Vista "such a popular OS" and do you think it's more likely due to microsoft pulling support for XP and computer retailers only selling units with Vista installed that accounts for the "popularity" of Vista?

[TB Roye]

My netbook has Window, Windows 7 release canidate and Ubuntu. I havent' worked that much with Win 7 but it seems better than XP. Took a little work to get Ubuntu runing the Netbook but it is the best of the three. LOML is due for a new Desktop but I will wait for 7 and sp1. My Desktop has EP and Ubuntu but can't run 7 until I upgrade the memory.

Tom

Tom

[RayintheUK]

I run XP on my workshop computer and my (getting old) VAIO laptop, Vista Home Premium on Jean's desktop and Vista Ultimate on mine. I installed the Windows 7 Ultimate RC as soon as it became available, as a dual-boot OS on my main computer, in order to compare it with Vista Ultimate.

There are small differences, quite a few "less-clicks" operations, permissions issues, etc. and it generally feels a little "slicker," but not much. It starts and shuts down slightly quicker, but I'd happily live with Vista for a while yet if 7 wasn't available this year.

Most opinions on GUIs are subjective anyway, but in your circumstances, I'd wait as long as you can get away with it, then get the deal that has the best upgrade path offer. That should cover you for three years anyway, maybe more?

Ray